I have not been fishing for a few weeks, but I usually check out the spots to see if anyone has been doing any good. Lately I have not talked to anyone who has caught any blues of size. I usually bank fish the area by the Lock and dam museum on the Alton side. I have also fish the Lewis and Clark area you mentioned. I assume you mean the Chain on Rocks canal area. I will probably try fishing at the dam a few times when and if the water drops some. Good luck and I hope you can find bait.

I've had to buy bait from Bluff City the past few months. In the Spring when the water comes up again, I'll be catching a lot of shad down at the canal and freezing them so I don't have to buy bait when I can't catch it. The Bighead Carp are destroying the shad population. I still haven't figured out how to catch skipjak though.

I've had to buy bait from Bluff City the past few months. In the Spring when the water comes up again, I'll be catching a lot of shad down at the canal and freezing them so I don't have to buy bait when I can't catch it. The Bighead Carp are destroying the shad population. I still haven't figured out how to catch skipjak though.

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Next time you are in Bluff City Tackle, ask them to show you their sabiki rigs. They work great when the skipjack are around.

Associated Press - December 21, 2009 9:44 AM ET
ALTON, Ill. (AP) - The beast would have been enough for a feast. But 19-year-old angler Dustin McEwen says he's just happy to have had the experience of wrestling the 80-pound catfish to shore.
The East Alton teenager muscled in the massive fish over 45 minutes while fishing the Mississippi River near Alton, using shad on his hook.
McEwen says he knew the fish was huge, and he didn't want to lose it. His mission was to simply wear out the fish he later dubbed "Old Faithful" enough to reel it in.
McEwen snapped photos of his large catch and contacted his wife, who hustled to the river with McEwen's 2-year-old daughter to see the catch.
But the fish caught a break. McEwen released it back into the water to fight another day.